The Possessed (Signet classics) [Paperback]

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Author), Andrew R. MacAndrew (Translator), Marc Slonim (Afterword)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1962 | Series: Signet classics

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 704 pages
• Publisher: Signet Classics (July 1, 1962)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451524861
• ISBN-13: 978-0451524867
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #844,123 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #96 in Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Language Nonfiction > Russian

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A masterpiece of characterization, November 17, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Possessed (Signet classics) (Paperback)

I was intrigued when John Updike picked this over Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov as one of the ten greatest works of literature of the millenium. After reading it I still claim that Karamazov is better, but this novel is certainly not to be missed. It is touter than some of Dostoevsky's other works, and it contains some of his best characterizations, all suffused with a very dark and very penetrating sense of humor. No one will forget the nihilist Kirilov, who wishes to kill himself in order to become God, the naive aesthete Stepan Trofimovitch and his final, farcical escape into peasant Russia, or Nikolai Stavrogin, haunted by a terrible crime that is made all the worse because it is too ordinary. The whole novel is an unabashed piece of anti-revolutionary (indeed, reactionary) propaganda, but even the characters that are intended as caricatures come across as fascinating and oddly believable. This novel displays as well as any other of his works the author's extraordinary understanding of the tortured ways of the human spirit.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Consequences of Nihilism, September 16, 2007

By 

Lleu Christopher (Hudson Valley, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Possessed (Signet classics) (Paperback)

I first read this book some years ago and wanted to try it again and see how I reacted to it a second time. It is a strange novel in some ways; alternately brilliant and flawed. The most blatant flaw is in the point of view, which constantly shifts from an omniscient narrator to that of a very minor character in the novel (whose name is only mentioned once). Dostoyevsky seems to forget about this narrator for many pages, then suddenly remembers him and awkwardly explains how he knows this or that fact about what is going on. At other times, we see into the minds of various characters in ways that would be impossible for him. This is something more than a minor flaw as it occurs throughout the book.

Despite this, The Possessed presents a brilliant, if very questionable, picture of one of Dostoyevsky's primary topics -nihilism. As with his other major novels, such as Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoyevsky is passionately concerned about what happens when individuals, and society as a whole, abandons the belief in God. His conclusion is that, without this core belief, man is lost and society breaks down completely. For this, and with some justification, he has been called a reactionary. Indeed, The Possessed is perhaps one of the most fundamentally reactionary novels ever written. I am not saying this as a criticism, but as a simple fact. It is a powerful argument in favor of conservative spiritual and political values. It's thesis is that without these, anarchy and senseless violence will inevitably tear society apart.

The Possessed tells the story of how two amoral, basically sociopathic young men, Nikolai Stavrogin and Peter Verkhovensky, lead a confused and gullible group of radicals and freethinkers on a rampage of destruction. Stavrogin (like more than a few Dostoyevsky characters) is a man who lives in a perpetual existentialist crisis. Nothing has meaning for him, so he randomly experiments with various actions and theories, completely disregarding the consequences. Verkhovensky's character is not quite as well developed. He is presented as a pure nihilist, someone who uses the rhetoric of political radicalism for the purpose of pure destruction. While Stavrogin is, at times, borderline sympathetic because of the pain he suffers, Verkhovensky is portrayed as an almost purely malicious character. Both, however, are responsible, either directly or indirectly for several crimes, including arson and murder.

Dostoyevsky is at least as concerned with the characters who, almost randomly and even, at times, against their will, support the two instigators. These characters are presented as naive, self-centered and frivolous liberals, intellectuals and misfits who are easily led down the path of evil. Central to this is Peter's father, Stepan Verkhovensky, an aging liberal intellectual. He is weak, effete and, often, absurdly sentimental. Dostoyevsky, however, is very good at creating complex characters, and the elder Verkhovensky is no exception. Despite his considerable shortcomings, Mr. Verkhovensky (as he is referred to) is also intelligent, self-aware (at least at times) and able to see the flaws in others -at least to a certain point. Yet, his basically selfish and secular outlook makes him unable to identify pure evil. Mr. Verkhovensky is actually the main character of the novel, if we go by the amount of time devoted to him. I believe he is meant to symbolize the inherent weakness and insubstantiality of the secular intellectual who ends up worshipping, instead of God, romantic and aesthetic ideals.

Despite Dostoyevsky's ability to create extremely complex and nuanced characters, The Possessed actually puts forth a fairly simplistic and reductionist thesis. As deeply complex as the characters often seem, they are nevertheless locked in to playing very predictable roles in the unfolding of events. In this way, Dostoyevsky reminds me of another, in some ways very different author (also Russian born) -Ayn Rand. Yet, I think Dostoyevsky manages to dig a bit deeper into the human soul than Rand did. The Possessed is a quite pessimistic novel, for there are no heroes --only the insipidly neutral and the evil. Dostoyevsky apparently could not conceive of radical ideas grounded in genuine idealism. Unfortunately, events in Russia several decades after Dostoyevsky's death seem to support his dark views of socialism and radical thought. Still, even if you don't agree with the programs of liberals, socialists or radicals, I think it's a bit simplistic to categorize all of them as either idiots or sociopaths. And this is essentially what Dostoyevsky does in this novel -though he manages to hide this simplification with lots of psychological depth. In many ways, the psychological elements, whether they were of central importance to Dostoyevsky or not, are profound enough to overshadow any political or religious arguments his books are making.

Dostoyevsky is the kind of writer who deeply explores the human psyche in a way few modern writers even attempt. A postmodern interpretation could easily dismiss him as morbidly introspective and symptomatic of a decadent bourgeois class with too much leisure time. Indeed, it even occurred to me while reading this that if Stavrogin had to work at a job, and did not have servants attending to his every need, he'd have less time to contemplate the meaninglessness of existence. Still, I don't think we should dismiss Dostoyevsky so readily, whether we agree with him or not. The issues he grapples with are universal and critical. The Possessed does not present much of a positive argument for how life should be lived. Dostoyevsky's cynical view of radicalism does not seem to be rooted in a firm belief in the political status quo of his day. I think his view was that human society and politics are essentially pointless and the only salvation lies in religion and man's relationship to God. While I do not share his spiritual outlook, I find the way he expresses it thought-provoking and fascinating.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I read this a year ago and still think on it often, June 8, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Possessed (Signet classics) (Paperback)

Dostoyevsky is claiming an atheist world can not function - that the godless people who inhabit the earth are without values and morrals (they are the "Possessed" individuals) I don't agree with much what he has to say but I was fascinated by his point of view. His book and particularly the character Kirilov are heavily mentioned in the essay by Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus, which argues the opposite claim. The Possessed is long but worth reading - studded with useful aphorisms